đểu cáng

Vietnamese

Etymology

đểu +‎ cáng.

Element đểu originally meant possibly "burden ~ load"[1] then "person who carries burdens ~ loads, porter"[1] or specifically "hired porter using a shoulder pole",[2] while element cáng originally meant "hammock on a carrying pole",[3][4][2] then "hammock-carrier".[2] All those taken together, this compound word was originally a collective noun meaning formerly "porters, carriers" yet nowadays "the nobodies, the bad lot".[5][4]

Vương Trung Hiếu (2021) presents an unsourced viewpoint that both đểu and đểu cáng nowadays mean "cads, scoundrels, rascals (n.)" → "caddish (adj.)" because poorly-educated porters often dealt unfairly with one another and competed against each other for customers by means of cheating and violence.[2]

Pronunciation

  • (Hà Nội) IPA(key): [ʔɗew˧˩ kaːŋ˧˦]
  • (Huế) IPA(key): [ʔɗew˧˨ kaːŋ˦˧˥]
  • (Saigon) IPA(key): [ʔɗew˨˩˦ kaːŋ˦˥]

Noun

đểu cáng

  1. (collective, obsolete) porters, carriers
  2. (collective, derogatory, dated) cads, rascals, scoundrels

Adjective

đểu cáng

  1. (derogatory) scummy, caddish

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 J.F.M. Génibrel (1898) “Đểu”, in Dictionnaire Annamite-Français, page 211
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Vương Trung Hiếu (2021) “Lắt léo chữ nghĩa: ‘Đểu cáng’ và ‘cửu vạn’ [Conundrum about Words and Meanings: ‘Đểu cáng’ and ‘cửu vạn’]”, in Thanh Niên [Young People]‎[1] (in Vietnamese)
  3. ^ J.F.M. Génibrel (1898) “Cáng”, in Dictionnaire Annamite-Français, page 64
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Rev. An-tôn Trần Gia Kiệm (2004) “Cáng”, in Giúp đọc Nôm và Hán-Việt, page 290
  5. ^ Rev. An-tôn Trần Gia Kiệm (2004) “Đểu”, in Giúp đọc Nôm và Hán-Việt, page 386
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